Is it another buzzword or not?

It feels like everyone is talking about Web3, crypto, NFTs and other “not-known-up-to-this-day” things that keep happening across the globe. You may have heard something about crypto and bitcoin and I was somewhat aware of that, but I haven’t got the reason to explore more about it, as it sounded very technical for a non-technical person like me.

Whenever I open my Twitter or Discord, all I see is NFTs giveaways, airdrops, follow & retweet comments and tags. More than a year ago, I didn’t understand a single thing until one day I sat with a guy who had already purchased an NFT and asked him to explain the logic as I was 5 years old. It sounded interesting, exciting and very optimistic like this is a glimpse of the future we’re gonna live in the upcoming decades. Right after that, Facebook turned to Meta, Metaverse was the word I was googling for and the rest follows here in this essay.

My curiosity led me to join communities that welcome newbies to Web3, share learning resources and organize online webinars so I started exploring this new world for me.

There’s one thing that got stuck in my mind while learning - everyone was saying that before you decide what to do, please do your own research aka DYOR. A few hours later, this is the tweet that motivated me to write this essay and see how much I understood what was happening and help other newbies like me:

I’ve jumped down the Web3 rabbit hole and these are my learnings so far - it is just the beginning of what I’m discovering while wandering Web3. I must admit, I had no idea that blockchain was more than 10 years old and NFTs were already a thing 5 years ago. You can’t fully understand something if you don’t wind back to where it all started. 

The answer: It’s a decades-long revolution!

We’re witnessing a revolution in progress, the internet and the computers we’ve known for 30 years are always evolving, right now at this moment of reading. It has always been, and it will always be - a natural process that happens over time. Remember when we had to go to internet cafes just to check our e-mail or open our MySpace profile? Or how about just a few of us had a mobile device that was not even connected to WiFi? It’s natural for things and processes to grow, evolve even mature, and become an everyday use for the masses.

But let’s dive into a timeline of important milestones and happenings over the last three decades and how the web is evolving in front of our eyes:

When Web1 showed up, we were only content consumers on the desktop devices we had, the only function we used to use was “search” and it was the era of information economy = read-only phase. The U.S. government’s ARPANET sent its first message in 1969, but the web as we know it today didn’t emerge until 1991 when HTML and URLs made it possible for users to navigate between static pages. Consider this the read-only web, or Web1. The first iteration of the internet, the time when the world wide web was trying to replicate existing media: computerized versions of magazines, newspapers and newsletters. Back then, people were satisfied to check their email and do some research. In order to do that so, you had to sit in front of a desktop PC and connect to the Internet via dial-up (ugh).

When mobile devices were presented to the general public and social networks showed up, we shifted from content consumers to content creators, bloggers and brand representatives. The web1 bubble emerged by giving readers the chance to be able to create their own content thanks to the social media networks, which means the read & write phase. We saw the rise of e-commerce thanks to smartphones and cloud computing, which were the major drivers’ growth of the Web2.

Why is Web2 not enough?

Today, Web2 is experiencing a new shift to Web3 - an upgraded digital experience where people can read, write and own. The creator economy becomes a creator-ownership economy where no more platform monopolies exist.

You may ask - what is wrong with Web2? The problem is that between these years (2005-2020) the internet acts like a centralized database monopoly operated and owned by tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon (and others). We are users of the product and we do not own data. What’s in for us in Web3? It’s decentralized for the first time since its inception, governed by AI, transparent and distributed by everyone in the network. We are slowly but steadily entering token-based economics. Web2 runs on centralized servers, Web3 runs on other people's computers that log our transactions.

Web3 is not something new, as a term it was coined by Gavin Wood (Ethereum co-founder) back in 2014. Even then, Web3 has explained the internet as being a decentralized digital infrastructure. Instead of being stored on servers, the data that makes up the internet will be stored on the network, where any changes will be recorded and verified by the entire network, transparent and governed by AI.

Could you ever imagine using Instagram in 2000? Did you ever think about using Facebook in 1999? Then why do we have doubts about the metaverse and NFTs when they are already here?

We have a long way to go, but it’s good to be part of the starting front.

We won't know exactly what Web3 will turn out to be for a few years. However, we can take a look at the principles that drive web3 development to piece together an understanding of what Web3 might look like.

Look, the Web3 point is...

The whole point of Web3 is to get ownership and decision-making away from a small group of people, into the hands of the community, the real users. It's very democratic. Speaking about democracy - in Web2, the stakeholders and the CEOs are the decision-makers of the future of the platform that has our personal data and makes money out of it. Web3 creates decentralized autonomous organizations run by the community and everyone who wants to be part of it and be part of the decision-making process. The backbone of crypto and Web3 is blockchain - simply explained as a chain of blocks that contain information - distributed ledger completely open and public to anyone. In Web2 platforms own our data and monetize it through various channels. In Web3, you own your data in your own crypto wallet and you can monetize whenever and however you want thanks to the next factor, which is pseudonymity. Web2 platforms ask for our personal information, whereas on Web3, it’s hidden behind a string of numbers and letters that can’t point to your real name, surname and other personal data. And what’s in for you and me? In Web2 we are the product, in Web3 we are the owners.

On the other side, it’s always acceptable for people being skeptics and pessimists about new and not yet discovered trending shifts. I agree we have a lot of things to be yet figured out related to government regulations, cybercrime, carbon footprint, entry barriers for users and so on. But 👇

It’s just getting started.

Before diving more deeply into blockchain and its characteristics in my upcoming essays, my bet is that these two worlds of Web2 and Web3 will merge to some extent until Web3 becomes mainstream. It may take months, years, or a whole decade - only time will tell and there’s no better way to end the essay with this thought stuck in my mind: maybe it booms maybe it busts, but we’ll be living with some form of Web3 either way.

Till next time,

Sending good vibes,

Simona

P.S Let's grab a virtual ☕ and discuss Web3 together. Shoot me an email at simona@enzyme.so 💜